[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: what do you say? good morning, good morning, good morning. it is thursday, june 20. welcome to the "full court press." right here on current tv. where we come to you live every morning for three hours. the next three hours. and bring you up to date on the news of the day. wherever it is happening. let you know what's going on and give you a chance to comment on -- i give you a chance to sound off and tell us what it means to you and your family.

1-866-55-press is our toll free number. that's how you join us by phone on twitter it's at bpshow. also easy on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. among the many stories we'll be covering this morning, president obama is back in the white house. got back in with the first family about 12:45 this morning. after very important visit to germany where he called yesterday on cutting the world's nuclear arsenal by 1/3 challenging russia to join him in that goal. and also said we've got to start moving toward a world without nuclear weapons. meanwhile, president obama said the important challenge of our day is to really start moving on climate change, nations united together, in that move. here at home, robert mueller director of the fbi says yes we are using drones.

valerie plame says edward snowden is no hero but he's not a traitor either. lisa murkowski, the third republican senator to endorse same-sex marriage. all of that on current tv. conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on!

the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience

gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama says we gotta start working toward a world without nuclear weapons and meanwhile we should start by cutting our nuclear arsenal by 1/3. the great goal, great mission hope russia says yes and let's get to it. good morning everybody. on that hopeful note, we start out this morning on the "full court press" right here on

current tv, on your local progressive talk radio station. and on sirius x.m. this hour only. great to see you this thursday morning. good to have you with us here. we look forward to hearing from you. you know how to do it. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. join the fun here on the "full court press." as we tackle the issues of the day. join us on twitter. at bpshow. at bpshow. and on facebook, it is easy. facebook.com/billpressshow. we've got lots to talk about today. we will have it covered. what's happening here in the nation's capital where it looks like there may be an agreement particularly a big big big agreement in the senate on the immigration bill which will get that bill -- certainly as many as 70, maybe as many as 80 votes in the united states senate. also here in washington, fbi director robert mueller yesterday told the members of

the senate judiciary committee that yes indeed, the fbi is already using drones in this country to spy on us but they say on a very limited basis. the jury is almost set down in the george zimmerman trial the trayvon martin trial in florida. and the taliban they got the meeting scheduled with the united states and they don't even show up for the peace meeting. they said let's do a swap of prisoners first. if you agree then maybe we'll meet. oh, man. lots to talk about this morning. again, so we got almost the entire team in place. peter ogborn finishing up his vacation. has today and development he will be back on monday. dan henning is here through the fight. you have a couple of days off next week. >> i'm off on monday and tuesday. we're doing a swap. >> bill: everybody is getting time off but me. >> i'm going to williamsburg. >> bill: i got last friday off because i lost my voice.

otherwise, i'm going to protest here. >> why don't you talk to management? >> bill: yeah, talk to the boss. alichia cruz is here. she will be on vacation next week. >> it's summer what do you want? >> bill: it will be cyprian. >> you'll run the board and cyprian will run the camera. >> bill: david letterman had some fun with president obama's trip to germany yesterday because one of the stick points in the president's conversations with chancellor angela merkel was that germany ever since world war ii, has been very sensitive to big brother particularly those who grew up like merkel did in east germany very sensitive to big brother snooping on and spying on its citizens. so they don't like all of this nsa stuff. neither do i of course. david letterman had fun with

that last night. >> i love this. germany is mad at the united states because of the nsa eavesdropping. let's go back and do that again. germany -- [ laughter ] is mad at the united states for the nsa eavesdropping. this, ladies and gentlemen, from the country that gave us the gestapo. they're angry at us. >> he makes a valid point. >> bill: he does. make a valid point. the difference is they got rid of the gestapo and it looks like we're building the gestapo. didn't we learn anything from that? again, as we said, lots and lots to talk about here this morning. we'll start -- we've got some good guests to do it. great guests. senator sherrod brown from ohio. one of our favorites will be on the show this morning. joe courtney, congressman joe courtney from connecticut. another big favorite. they call him three sub joe. we'll also talk to john fuglesang, our good buddy from

current tv later in this hour. and we start with, are you ready to turn the wheel of your car over to a robot? but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this thursday, hollywood lost a big name yesterday. james gandolfini died of a heart attack while on vacation in italy. the actor best known for his role as tony soprano in the sopranos. he was most recently in zero dark 30 and was working on animal rescue. it is in post-production now. we'll see him on screen. it is due out later this year. it involves a project from cbs and hbo. he did win three emmys in his career and had six nominations. he was 51 years old. >> bill: unbelievable. poor guy. so young. and so much ahead of him. did a big broadway show, too. i can't think of the name of it

now. hugely successful since the sopranos. very sad. >> sports, wild stanley cup finals game four in boston. the chicago blackhawks coming back to beat the boston bruins in overtime 6-5. the third game in the last four to go to extra time. chicago's seabrooks scored to win the series now even at 2 games apiece and now it heads back to chicago and they have th momentum going into game five. >> bill: we have to plate final call here. >> oh sure. >> bill: from wgn in chicago. because i think this guy was a little excited to see his home team tie it up. >> seabrooks took it back. he scores! hawks win! hawks win! seabrooks with a bomb from the top of the right circle and the blackhawks have tied this series at two games apiece!

an enormous overtime win for the chicago blackhawks. and they're off the bench to mob seabrooks. just inside the hawks zone. >> bill: lynn sweet must be happy this morning. >> big time. everyone there at the "chicago sun times." >> bill: i want to be a sports announcer in my next career. not even when your team wins on election night, can you get that excited. >> right r. and nbc's today show continueto sit in second place behind abc's "good morning america" after soany years in thtop spot. now ty're thinking maybe a new t ll hel them. they'rreplacg e shos reor o8 yrs heilst o t ors t degn cstctn o n seoebat stall changeset. >> bill: have they made an entire career in television? that's what they always do.

when things aren't going well, let's change the scenery. that's like the dumb republicans who say all we need to do is change the way we deliver the message, not the message. the message is what's wrong. it is not just a new pizza box that you need. it is a new pizza. that's what "the today show" ought to learn as well. folks, every morning starting the day before, all of you friends know by now, we try to start off with a story that we find the most compelling, the most important or the most interesting. it's not always politics even though we're basically a political talk show. news talk show. and sometimes it can be wide field which is the case this morning. because the story that caught my attention and the one that i find the most intriguing today is this headline which i found

on "the guardian" actually. it has become a pretty important site. and it talks about ford motor company has designed a range of robot-driven cars, self--driving cars that they are now testing every day many times a day and the chairman of ford has said self-driving vehicles are closer than we think. [sound engine starting] >> there it is. >> bill: i'm sitting here watching my car take off. i just sent it to the dry-cleaners. so, you know, hope it will be back safe and sound. ford says it will be. now, we talk about this -- we talked about this a few months ago. this, in the wake of california, becoming the third state to

allow robot-driven, self-driven cars on the road. as long as there's a real person in the car in california, in florida and in nevada right now, it's okay. self-driven cars are legally permissible on the roads of the highways. so my basic -- we've been talking about this morning in the studio. and my basic question to you is would you even consider buying one of these things? would you even consider getting in one? and driving in one? i mean just think -- and we know the way talk radio is, particularly morning drive most of you wherever you are you know, whether you're in denver, san francisco or los angeles or san diego or mobile or atlanta or asheville or buffalo niagara falls, lockport, wherever you happen to be this morning you

know chicago, all of those great suburbs of chicago. you're in the car. most of you are listening in the car, right? hopefully those of you watching on current tv are not in the car but who knows. think about it. think of all the things that could possibly go wrong. all of the things that you've got to be aware of and watching out for and you know, sensitive to. you really trust a robot to do that? so here's what ford motor company said. i want to make it clear because some of you may make the same point. where ford is testing these is on a track -- proving ground, basically, and they're using it mainly to test for durable because the robots can test -- can drive the cars over and over and over and over again. humans can only drive them for so many rounds then have somebody else take their place. it is kind of a cost saving

durability test. but the goal is to have these babe bips out on the -- babies out on the road. ford is doing this. google has been doing this in california since it has become legal in california. they have had self-driven cars in california out on the pacific coast highway which is a magnificent road but only a two-lane road all the way down the great great beautiful coast of california. they've had self-driven cars, goopgel has drive across the golden gate bridge. they've had them drive all the way around lake tahoe which i know really, really well. so this is -- you know, this is happening out there. ford says these robotic cars, robots in the car driving the cars, they can accelerate, they can steer. they can even stop for passing pedestrians or other obstacles that may get in the way. they can analyze the road ahead. they can watch out for hazards.

they can speed up. they can slow down without any human input. back to google again google got a guy and they called reporters out who could even follow this. a man who is 95% blind and he's in the car -- 95% blind. he's in the car and he takes a self-driving car. he can't drive it. he's just sitting in the car. he takes his self-driving car to buy a taco and to pick up his dry-cleaning in morgan hill, california and bring it back to google headquarters. so there you go. so first question is would you consider even getting in one of these? i wouldn't. i mean i was driving home yesterday and there was -- two days ago, there was an intersection here in washington where, for some reason, the lights had gone out. it was on a blinking red light.

how does this robotic car know? something has changed. you've got to do what you do at a blinking red light. you stop and everybody has the blinking red light. it is like a four-way stop sign. >> it sounds like it will have the technology. >> bill: but it is not always a four-way stop sign. >> of course. >> bill: maybe there's something they can sync to normal traffic lights but if a normal traffic light changes or normal traffic light is out i remember one time, i was thinking about it this morning when i was shaving i remember leaving the golf course with a friend and there is a turtle crossing the road. all right now, you can say run over the damn turtle. i wouldn't run over a turtle. a robot is going to spot a turtle? maybe it will spot a moose crossing the road, one would hope. or a person, one would hope. but like a turtle? i wouldn't run over -- a skunk or a rabbit or anything crossing the road. a baby or an infant or a kid?

no freakin' way. you know, you don't drive out of your driveway. you trust this robot to get to the end of the driveway and look left and look right see who's coming see how fast they're coming and pull out in traffic. are you kidding me? then, i guess, let's talk about it. the other question is why the hell do you want it? why? so you can read a book or the pape other put your makeup on or eat your breakfast? don't be so damn lazy. drive the freakin' car or stay home. i don't like it. i don't like this. stop the world, i want to get off. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers

thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding.

i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. "full court press" here on a thursday morning. june 20. so, here you go. you know, you know what this -- here's what i think this is all about. everybody wants to be a backseat driver. right? so with this, robotic cars, everybody can be a backseat driver. you're sitting there and you just say pass that dumb car. pass that bus. i love it. then you trust that robot to like look behind and make sure you can pass that thing. there's nobody coming up ahead. it's not a double yellow stripe or something and there's no 18-wheeler bearing down on you? right. i'm going to trust it. fly to the moon. >> we're on twitter at bpshow.

we're at sam says what happens when a cop pulls you over and you're drunk in the passenger seat? who gets the ticket? and perry 85 -- >> bill: the robot could probably write a check and pay the ticket. >> perry 85 says with the number of pedestrians hit and the amount of road rage in d.c., especially self-driving cars might be an improvement. >> bill: car on north capitol street right near union station about a mile from here, car plows through suv coming down the hill, plows through hits three pedestrians. yeah. right. robotic car is the answer? kim in denver, colorado. hi kim. >> caller: hi, bill. how you doing? >> bill: what do you think? are you driving your own car this morning? >> caller: i'm not. but first of all i want to say that i do love your show. >> bill: thank you. >> caller: glad to call you this morning. i think that we're not ready for something like this yet.

it is too new. maybe if we had roads and cars like they did in that movie irobot with will smith have you seen that? maybe if we had cars like that, the latest version of "total recall," i could see cars like that. but not in the kind of roads that we have, i wouldn't feel safe driving a robot car. >> bill: i wouldn't either. i just think they're too many -- there are too many things that could go wrong. think about it, particularly those of you on your commute this morning. i guess do you trust this thing to -- you get to the end of your commute, think about that. find a parking spot. parallel parking. i have a hard enough time parallel parking. i'm a human being. pulling into a garage and finding a parking spot in a garage? there are so many things that can go wrong.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. the "full court press" this thursday morning. good to have you with us this morning. we're coming from our nation's capital, brought to you today by the national education association. good men and women of the nea. our great teachers across america. creating great public schools for every student in this country. you bet. under president dennis van roekel and you can find out more about their good work at

nea.org. talking about these robotic cars, ford motor company yesterday announcing that it is way ahead on robotic cars. google is testing a whole fleet of priuses and a couple of lexus suvs out in california. have already driven them around -- the robots have, around lake tahoe which is not an easy drive. down the pacific coast highway across the golden gate bridge. they seem to be coming. why would you trust them? you would have to be in the car of course but still turning the controls over and sitting there and watching this car automatically get you to your destination. i don't know. i do know, no, not for me. your calls -- back to your calls and comments on twitter in just a second. first, hear this story about identity theft. another one. this one out of massachusetts.

a university up in massachusetts doesn't say which one has informed nearly 1700 individuals that their private data including social security numbers, may have been compromised when one of the computers was infected by a malicious software program. oops. identity theft possibility here it is again. you have beware of it unless you're protected against it as i am with lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available. but lifelock, of course, can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. here's what you do. visit lifelock.com and enter the promo code press 10 or call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10% off your lifelock ultimate membership. the number to call 1-800- 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate.

i just read the post-script to the story. next it says they're going to start working on robots that will have sex for you. so you don't have to do that either. >> come on, bill! >> bill: it takes so much time and it is so messy. just have the robot do it for you. and you know, they drive your car then have sex for you. you just sit back and relax. don't have to do anything. >> we're at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter. >> bill: i'm not for that. >> nathan ryan says self-driving cars have a better track record per mile than manually driven cars. the big question is liability in cases of collision which is -- >> bill: if you believe in them they don't have a collision. they tell you it's impossible for them to have a collision. i mean they would never hit a pedestrian. they would never have a collision. they would never have a crash. they would never do anything wrong. b.s.

>> i have a senior parent and a robot would be a great safety feature. >> bill: no. keep the senior parent out of the car. take their keys away. that's what you do. >> it gives them the opportunity to be more mobile though. if they can't drive. >> bill: they should not be driving. >> like a blind person. gives them more opportunity. >> bill: there are buses. that's why we have taxis. that's why we have sons and daughters and friends to drive them. and grandchildren. >> at blue says a robot driver would be good for long distance hauls over 500 miles like truckers. get arnold on the phone. >> bill: where's ike and where are arnold our two favorite truckers. i don't believe -- i don't think there's one trucker in this whole country that would support robotic cars or trucks. timothy is out in seattle washington. timothy, what do you say? good morning.

>> caller: hey bill. for thoses of us that ride motorcycles, the day of self-navigating cars cannot come soon enough. >> bill: really? why? >> caller: because there are idiots out there behind almost every wheel. they don't see us. they're not aware of us. even if they look straight at us, they don't see us. and i'll take a robot over a human. >> bill: you think the robot is going to see you? >> caller: absolutely. >> bill: i've seen some idiots driving motorcycles too. >> caller: yes. but they will take themselves out. a car -- there's nothing a biker can do about a car in the line of driving. the biggest nightmare is the car not seeing us and the car turning left in front of us. >> bill: yeah. i am aware of that danger. i've seen, you know, read a lot

of stories about that. i understand it but i think you're putting too much faith in the robotic car timothy. i appreciate the call. richard is in chicago. richard, are you behind the wheel? >> caller: no. the robot is. i think it is a good idea if we had a robot driving the car in the event of road rage and there was an accident. the two robots would get out of the car and do like a rock 'em sock 'em road rage and they would have a sensitive spot and if one hit the other in the sensitive spot, it would blow a fuse and that would be the end of that. and for people that say that these things can't malfunction did you ever burn your toast? have a good day. >> bill: or did your computer ever crash right? it is that old tired joke about people getting on the plane right? and the recording coming on saying this plane is robotically controlled but you don't have to worry at all. nothing can go wrong can go wrong, can go wrong can go

wrong, can go wrong. claims, about by the way a lot are self-piloted. they've got a pilot that takes th controls back whenever they have to take offr land or run into some turbulence or something. on the way. i guess you could do that with a car but you know, there is a lot more traffic on the roads than those guys are dealing with up there at 32,0 fee a l retuha suddey shows up in front of you. i doubt they're going to see the turtle crossing the road at 32,000 feet. dennis in fort myers, florida. hi dennis. >> caller: hi, bill, great show. >> caller: i'm on the show all the time. everything you said they wanted to do, they do. they eat breakfast then put on makeup. they're all over the place. robots would be fine. they can calculate thousands of things that are happening all around them in milliseconds as long as there's redundancy and

back-up if one part goes bad. >> bill: you would trust them over a human driver? >> caller: over the humans that i drive on the road with, oh, yes. they are terrible drivers out here. they don't care. they don't think. a robot would just think about one thing. keeping the car where it belongs. the speed it is supposed to do and where it is going. >> bill: have you ever had a machine that did not break down? >> caller: that's what i said. there would have to be a lot of redundancy and back-ups to pick up for what goes wrong. >> bill: that's the problem i have. no matter if somebody said like a toaster or a car or a computer, they don't always work. >> caller: people break down all the time, you know. in their own minds they're just off somewhere else. >> bill: all right dennis. i think it is a little too much faith in technology. let's wind up here with out in albany oregon. good morning. >> caller: good morning, bill. how you doing? >> bill: i'm doing good.

>> caller: doing great myself. you remember that old tv series knight rider. that's coming to pass. >> with david hasselhoff. >> bill: was that david hasselhoff? >> kit was the car. >> caller: knight industries 2,000. >> and it drove itself. michael, michael. >> bill: i can see it. i wanted to pick up -- i wanted to return the books to the library today but you know, i don't feel like going down, i'll send the car down. program it in. car takes off. takes the books pulls up in front of the library. you've already called the library or i guess the robot has called and said we've got three books we're dropping off and somebody walks out of the library, window goes down. picks up the books. car turns around, comes back home. parks in front of your house. stop the world. i want to get off. i'm going to get off -- well, get off the world john

fuglesang. in the next segment here of the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. only on current tv!

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk

about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. >> announcer: like politics, then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey how lucky you are here on current tv. to have book ends and on your progressive talk radio station

and on sirius x.m. early this morning to have the book ends of our programming. both coming to you live, not only me, bill press with the "full court press" but john fuglesang, host of "viewpoint" on current tv. 8:00 p.m. every evening. john, good to have you back. how are you? >> john: good morning mr. press, how are you? >> bill: i'm still blushing from the way we teased your segment here. i don't know whether you have been listening in. >> john: i missed my tease. >> bill: i said in the next segment, i was going to get off with john fuglesang. >> john: who hasn't. >> bill: i've always wanted to john. [ laughter ] >> john: wow okay. i guess nsa means more than just security in this conversation. what i see in the craigslist personal ads every day. >> bill: so good to join you so to speak. by the way, on the nsa front, it is kind of funny isn't it, when

russia and germany say that we are spying on -- we're doing wrong on spying on our people here in this country. >> john: i know. >> bill: when the gestapo says you've gone too far. >> john: when east berlin says we're overdoing it a bit. >> john: i thought it was interesting when valerie plame her comment on -- of you -- uh-oh, do i hear a little son? >> john: the little urchin is loose. >> bill: with that fuglesang gene, he's going to grab the microphone as early as possible. and take over. steal the show, john. that's what they do. >> john: he's going to grab the mic and scream about socialism and fracking. >> bill: valerie plame. her comments on edward snowden yesterday. this is a lady who knows about leaks of intelligence. >> john: indeed she does. she's been a guest on

"viewpoint." >> bill: she's great. good friend. she said, of course, yesterday snowden may not be a hero but how dare dick cheney call him a traitor. speaking of traitors, right? >> john: sorry. >> bill: i love it. there was a time when dick cheney thought it was okay to leak intelligence. >> john: yeah, isn't that funny? it is amazing how we finally have a scandal that's an actual scandal and no republican alive is ever criticizing the press about it or they'll go to karma jail forever. dick cheney criticizing you on security is like dick cheney criticizing you of shooting your friend in the face and never calling the cops. >> bill: that's why i never went hunting with him even though he invited me several times. >> john: it is great they can exhume cheney from the underground bunker. i'm a fan of the supernatural just like the next sci-fi fan. this is going to be the real test of obama because what fox news says now doesn't matter and

history won't care. history will care about how the president responds to this particular crisis. we talked about this before, bill. if every terrorist in the world threw down their arms and said no more jihad, we'll never be violent again and all terror is eradicated for the rest of time, these laws would still be on the books. this is going to be the new normal. this president's true test may wind up being how he addresses this and around germany where they have -- go in to the lives of others, you'll understand why they take this stuff seriously. >> bill: well said, well said. you know, what really bothers me are the democrats who would be just raising holy hell if george bush were in the white house and this program were revealed, right? >> john: bill, why do you hate the president? it is completely true. >> bill: speaking about bringing people back from the

dead, aren't we all happy that sarah palin is back on fox news. they couldn't do without her. six months later, they said no, no no, we can't survive. >> john: fantastic. lady blah blah is back in our lives. >> bill: why? >> john: why? well, i'll tell you. i'm a comedian so i do have a personal stake in this. it's amazing that she's sort of like the g.o.p.'s flav a flav. this is a woman who just talked about politicians at the nerd prom and called them ass clowns. this is the woman who john mccain thought was qualified to become president. a lot of democrats say oh, no, go away, sarah palin why do you want to keep on talking? i love her. i'm not mad she keeps on badmouthing the g.o.p. establishment. i don't know why she's blaming the people who made her famous because the kardashians aren't blaming o.j. for anything.

but i want her to keep on talking. she's a hero to millions of men with bald eagle wallpaper and no republican is willing to criticize her. dick cheney is the only one who will ever criticize her because they all want her endorsement. so she's more than alaska's snooki. she is also the kingmaker. >> bill: she's great material for people like you and me. >> john: i want people when they think of the g.o.p. to think of sarah palin. >> bill: and michele bachmann. >> john: exactly. >> bill: i'll tell you, on one sad note, sometimes we are embarrassed by people in our profession for not doing their job and not being strong enough and bold enough and courageous enough. michael hastings was just the opposite, wasn't he? >> john: yeah. it is a great loss to everyone. michael was a regular on our show. >> bill: yep. >> john: he recently came on our show, suit and tie. >> bill: no. i don't think i've ever seen him in a suit and tie. >> john: it was his wedding

anniversary. he actually made his wife wait to come on "viewpoint." that's why he was dressed that way. michael is going to be like the james dean of the bill hicks like any great artist who died young. he will be like the big bang. his influence will keep expanding. you'll see in 15 years young journalists of rolling stone will say michael hastings was their inspiration. >> bill: he was fearless. he went out there did his job. didn't care and at 33, just set such a great example for journalists everywhere. >> john: you should read his wife's response in "the new york times". >> bill: i saw reference of that this morning. haven't had a chance to read it yet but i will check that out. i think it is diaper changing time here. >> john: it is. michael moore will be joining me tonight on "viewpoint" for the first half hour of the show. >> bill: oh, really. >> john: we'll get bill press up to new york some time. >> bill: you know what?

i would love to do that. >> john: when you're in town, we'll have you as an in-studio guest. >> bill: let's make a date. john fuglesang, we'll see you at 8:00 tonight on "viewpoint." >> john: mark my words. don't repudiate sarah palin. >> bill: love you john. thanks. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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going to be joined by senator sherrod brown from ohio. and then also by congressman bobby scott from virginia. boy, heavy on members today. also a little bit later congressman joe courtney from connecticut will be joining us. gerald seal says on the nsa stuff, by the way on cars, self-driving cars, start there. clyde carr says -- on self-driving cars, the first thing that comes to mind as to why we might want self-driving cars is drunk driving. if somebody's had too much while they're out, the car could take over and drive that person safely home. saving lives each year. that, of course, is unless the robots had too much to drink too. jeff says conservatives should not govern for the same reason% vegetarians shouldn't cook meat. i like that. that's great! that's what's wrong with the tea

party. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. thursday morning june 20. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv. your little roundtable every morning or town hall meeting every morning. where you'll find out what's happening today. what ought to be concerned about. what you ought to be thinking about and what you want to talk about, right here on the "full court press." we'll give you a chance to let your views be known.

sorry, about what's going on this morning by phone at 1-866-55-press. follow us on twitter at bpshow and at facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama is back at the white house. he got in about quarter to 1:00 this morning on the south lawn after that big speech in germany yesterday, where he said we should be looking forward and work toward a world without nuclear arms. how great that would be. we can start the president said, by cutting our nuclear arsenal by 1/3. calling on russia to join him in that mission. and also said meanwhile, we should get busy as world leaders and doing something about the biggest challenge of the day which is climate change. here at home, robert mueller director of the fbi admitted to senate judiciary committee yesterday that the fbi is already using drones in the united states although he says on a limited basis.

valerie plame says edward snowden may not be a hero but he's no traitor either. all of that and more when current tv continues.

cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle clastaking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience

gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: senator lisa murkowski from alaska becomes the third republican senator to endorse same-sex marriage. american equality. -- major equality. good for her. joining senator kirk and portman. great to see you today. it is "full court press" here on a thursday. thursday, june 20. we're coming to you live from our studio on capitol hill in

washington, d.c. our nation's capital. with what's happening today around the country around the globe and here in our nation's capital. and we get our conversation going and then open up the phones and twitter and facebook so you can tell us what it all means to you. two-way street here. we want to hear from you. and you can do so again by phone at 1-866-55-press. on twitter we get more and more comments on twitter. love it. at bpshow. and our number of friends is growing, growing growing on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. good to see you today. lots to talk about today. president obama is back from his trip to germany. the talks with the taliban sort of sputtered when the taliban didn't show up. and it looks like historic breakthrough on immigration reform here in washington, d.c. some of the stories we're covering this morning. peter ogborn still off this

week. dan henning is still here. >> here i am. good morning. >> bill: with alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding on the video cams. hello to one and all. jay leno had some fun last night with the fact -- with nsa and what happens -- why it's good to have nsa around, i guess i should say. if you're president of the united states and your poll numbers suddenly go down. >> president obama's approval rating has dropped 8 points over the past month down to 45%. his lowest in more than a year and a half. but obama is not letting it get him down. he's going to find out who it is via e-mails and phone to get them back. >> bill: it is nice the nsa records can be put to some good,

i guess. i hope he's just joking. here we go. eight minutes after the hour. coming up, we've got a big medley of important guests to join us. senator sherrod brown from ohio will be coming along a little bit later. senator -- i mean congressman joe courtney from connecticut. congressman bobby scott from virginia. and we'll kick off this hour by going up to boston to find out the latest about what's happening with whitey bulger. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> quick check of other headlines making news. the man who is famous for telling us you're going to liability way you look, i guarantee it, has been fired from the company that he, himself, founded. talking about george zimmer. founder of men's wearhouse. he was pushed out by the board of directors yesterday. he said in a statement they chose to silence his concerns about the direction of the company. he's not hurting for money though. $1.9 million in salary last year. he's got stock options worth nearly $70 million.

what will happen to the deep voice commercials about the suits and ties? the company actually owns the rights to his name and image so he may actually still appear in them for awhile even though if he doesn't want to be there. >> bill: i can't believe that story. he's like the persona of the company. he founded it. i've met him. he's a great guy. >> you've met him? >> bill: yeah. >> he seemings like a guy -- he seems like a guy i would want to have a beer with. >> bill: very prominent in the san francisco bay area. what a huge success story. >> a member of the dugger reality tv show family is coming to washington for a job. josh dugger is the oldest of the 19 children of jim bob and michelle who starred in the reality tv show 19 kids and counting about constantly having kids and not using birth control. the he's coming to work for the family research council. yes, the pro-life activist will become the executive director for the legislative branch of

tony perkins' organization known for opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. >> bill: this is great. this is a great message for them to send family research council. just have 19 kids. should be working for planned parenthood. >> they're calling it baked alaska. i'm not talking about food. it is just the weather. the 49th state experiencing an unusual heat wave with temperatures between 80 and 90 degrees across much of alaska this week. usually they're in the low 60s. it was still snowing there a month ago. not very many people there have air conditioning. >> bill: how hot? >> between 80 and 90 degrees which is unusual for alaska. the warmest is in the 70s. >> bill: people go to alaska to get away from the temperatures. thank you, dan. yes, indeed. it is unbelievable, to me, the stories that have been coming out of boston over this trial of

of -- a man who was number one on the most wanted list. whitey bulger, they nabbed him in santa monica, california, about a year ago. now, his trial is underway. milton valencia is one of the reporters who has been covering it doing great stuff for "the boston globe" and he joins us on% our news line this morning. milton, good morning. good work. >> how are you? >> i'm doing good. got a little dog in the background there? >> yeah. sorry about that. >> bill: last, how we had somebody who had a baby. they were holding a baby. i bet you can't believe some of the stuff you're hearing in this courtroom, right? >> to hear it in person, you know, the story has been out there. we're hearing more of it. just to hear it in person with such a lack of emotion and it is astonishing. it is really remarkable in the sense of what we're see on boston streets. >> bill: so whitey is

accused -- he's charged with 19 murders, is that right? >> right. whitey is charged in a racketeering indictment, the old -- rico. legislation used to take on the mafia. and for a racketeering indictment, you have underlying charges. some of those underlying charges include gambling, extortion and in his case, 19 murders. >> bill: now he is not accused of, as i understand it, of committing the murders himself but ordering the murders, is that right? >> just a few of them. there are a few that he's accused of committing himself. we'll hear more about those once we've heard over the last couple of days were from a hitman who said whitey had ordered a few murders against rivals. >> bill: and this hitman is john -- >> john mad rano. he admitted to slaughtering 20 people. he made a deal with the government, however, that allowed him to remain free.

in exchange, he told of whitey's history with the fbi and whitey's history of murder. >> bill: so he is cooperating with the fbi. yet at the same time i saw he testified that the worst thing in the world is somebody who is a sneak right? who is a judas. he's turned out to be the big judas in this case. >> in his view, no. the interesting thing is -- it is remarkable. so unique in that even law enforcement officials have said they've never seen anything like this. you have someone who is testifying but in his view, you can't rat against a rat. that's his quote from a miami trial. interesting enough, he opened the floodgates for other gangsters to say you know what? johnny is right. we're not testifying against each other. we're testifying against whitey who was informing on us the whole time. so it is kind of judas testifying against judas maybe. i don't know. it is remarkable in that sense. >> bill: so whitey was also an fbi informant?

>> whitey was the one who had the -- he calls it -- boston connection. connection with the fbi. you know their examples of a big scheme. 30 have come down except for of all people, whitey and his cohort steven. that's the connection to the fbi and the way they were being protected. >> bill: what i found so striking about this is according to modrano at any rate -- >> sorry. city life. >> bill: there was a certain code of honor among thieves here right? or among murderers. >> what's really remarkable for me to see is you hear about a gang wars today and the old school mafia traditions. we're really seeing the old school traditions, you know. talk of extortion. but also kind of like people being held accountable and very

capable. there was a bookie, o'brien. 84 years old. a throwback to the era of the crime family. yeah, they were mobsters but a classy, organized way. i think they called them the gentleman bandit. these aren't just thugs. these are gangsters who live via code and honor and tighty bulger was at the -- and whitey bulger was at the head of it. >> bill: they wouldn't kill women or kids. >> they wouldn't inform on each other. that was the code of honor. what's interesting about whitey bulger is he's admitting to certain crimes. at 83 years old you know, a trial that can put him in jail for the rest of his life, obviously. what we're seeing out of him is he seems to be shaping -- not necessarily defending himself. he is defending himself but if anything, he's trying to defend his legacy as this trial is going on. he did not kill women. he's not saying he didn't kill anybody. he's specifying he did not kill

women. he was not an informant because he was irish. >> bill: oh, great. oh good. you're not such a bad guy after all. modrano testified yesterday that he lied to his best friend before he shot him in the back of the head because you know, again, men of honor don't lie to their friends right? he was going to kill him but he wouldn't lie to him. >> exactly. over cross-examination we've seen -- hank and then john modrano. we have him speaking in monotone saying i'm a manner of honor, man of the code. you shot your best friend in the face. how is that a man of honor? it is really kind of contradicting himself in so many ways. a man of honor, man of code doesn't kill 20 people. >> bill: i would rather him lie to me than shoot me in the head. >> i think so.

>> bill: so there's no doubt all of the guys are -- are never going to see the light of day again. they're all going away. they've all admitted involvement in these. >> well, not john modrano. that's the interesting thing. his testimony really, i'll agree, opened the floodgates for history to come out and so -- >> bill: we're just about out of time here. milton sorry. >> my apologies. >> bill: okay. >> i'm here. it was just background noise. >> bill: we got you back. so why wouldn't modrano just admit shooting one guy in the head and committing other murders because whitey told him to. you mean he's not going to go to prison? >> no. he's been free. that's the interesting thing is this man who admitted to 20 murders, he admitted to 20 murders but he also provided

testimony, not only against whitey but what's significant is he provided testimony about fbi corruption that led to the indictments of several fbi officials. >> bill: and the fbi made a deal with him and the deal was he would remain free if he testified? >> it was a deal with the devil but they agreed. it wasn't the fbi. it was the state police and federal prosecutors because you know the fbi has corruption in this sense. it is the only way for them to root out the fbi corruption. they all agree it was a deal with the devil but it was the deal that led to not only the fbi scandal but the discovery of victims. some cold cases, some murders had been unsolved until his testimony. >> bill: i've been thinking i can't wait to see the movie but at the same time the movie can never be as good as this trial. >> this is real stuff. the last point i was making is john mad rano wants to explain the story.

what's the underlying issue here too is there are 19 murder victims. do you have whitey. you have this gangster and history of fbi scandal but he also killed 19 people. these are people who have their family members in court now who are looking at the photos who are listening to john's testimony. you can have the movie "the departed" but they didn't show many of the victims. that's really what the issue is here. that's why i -- after john modrano testified and after beach testified that's when they started unearthing graves and they never would have been unearthed without that testimony. >> bill: "boston globe."com and read milton valencia reporting on this. remind me. what happened to whitey's brother? >> whitey's brother does not show up at the trial. this is billy bulger. one of the most powerful, at once, one of the most powerful political figures in the state. he was president of the mass senate. he went on to become president

of the board of justice. he was in a small scandal. he was pushed out of office but he's a free man. testified in congress that he knew nothing about his brother's whereabouts. some of the history as you know, it is a little contradictory. i'm not sure exactly what was said, what wasn't said and what was known and what wasn't known. definitely a dark cloud over it over him and his brother's relationship. they've always been close but interestingly enough, he hasn't been at the trial. >> bill: interesting story. you're right in the middle of it. thank you, milton through all of the distractions, thank you for bringing us up to date. >> my apologies for the background noise. >> bill: that's what city life is all about. milton valencia of "the boston globe." >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show" now on current tv. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers

thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. is

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war

room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: we'll be talking with sherrod brown today. we now about the nsa gathering all of this information on what phone calls we make and storing all of that information gathering information on any e-mail traffic between the united states and europe and storing that, all of that information. fbi director robert mueller in front of the senate judiciary committee yesterday. the last time he had appeared before them, he said that the fbi was -- they had bought a few drones and they were exploring their use. well, when he appeared

yesterday, senator chuck grassley from iowa, he's got a good staff with him. they remembered that. they wrote up some good questions for the senator from iowa. and he wants to know okay, so what's up with the drones now? are you still exploring or what? >> does the fbi use drones for surveillance on u.s. soil? >> yes. >> i want to go on to a question -- >> let me put it in context. very, very minimal way. very seldom. >> bill: all right. so according to the fbi director, yes, they're already using drones on u.s. soil, on us but he says in a very limited way. so again senator grassley asks an important next question about okay, well, do you have any policy or guidelines? regarding their use? >> we are in the initial stages of doing that. i will tell you that our

footprint is very small. we have very few and limited use and we're exploring not only the use but also the necessary guidelines for that use. >> bill: just as i find the nsa, what they're doing troubling, i find this troubling, too my friends. we talked about it before. notice here, the fbi is using drones. they confirmed it yesterday. they're storing that information just like the nsa is storing information on phone calls and they're now working on the guidelines. so they started using the drones on our soil before they have any guidelines limiting their use. ass backwards. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

(vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on! the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

>> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you bet it is. 33 minutes after the hour now. here we go on a thursday. thursday, june 20. it is the "full court press." and we're brought to you today coming to you live from our nation's capital, brought to you today by the international brotherhood of teamsters. good men and women of the teamsters union under president jim hoffa. we all live better because of their good work. in many, many different fields. you can check it out at their web site at teamster.org. the senate and the house both pretty busy with a particularly in the senate, on a lot of fronts these days. our good friend sherrod brown from ohio is right in the middle of many of those battles.

senator brown joins us on our news line this morning unable to come into the studio this morning. one way or another always good to have you senator. >> the coffee you serve is so good that i can't believe i'm not good. >> bill: we'll catch you next time, indeed. i gotta ask you first of all june 20, here we go. and we know what's going to happen with student loans on july 1. and nobody's talking about it. republicans just going to roll over and let the rates double? what's going on? >> it happened a year ago. it went right up to the edge. that's kind of what happens too often here and they need to understand -- the public understands that the senate wants to freeze the rates for another year and come up with a long-term plan on how we maintain lower interest rates and how we deal with college costs, generally. this is a major part of the problem because it adds $1,000 per student per year. but it is not the whole problem. we need to do something more

comprehensible. we need to do this immediately and the house needs to act. >> bill: so the republicans have come up with this floating sort of -- like the old -- what were those? mortgages called, right? >> adjustable mortgage. >> bill: that they want to have a floating rate which is hardly the solution, is it? >> no. it's not the solution. it is sort of this kind of mix of let the market do it and republicans are going to let the market do it except when the market doesn't do it right as we know in banking and we know in medicare and healthcare and so this won't work any better. and there's also the issue of about 15% of the loans, not a big percent but a significant number $150 billion are private loans with private lenders. those are even more problematic because the interest rates are higher. the forgiveness and the willingness to refinance is significantly less and we're trying to get more of those private loans into the public

direct loan program which we've done. we've had success on which we're not there yet. there are so many people that have loans and drop out of school and are stuck with the loans. so many others graduate with 20 or 30 or $40,000 in debt and they end up -- they can't buy a house or start a business. they can't do things we need them to do in the workplace. >> bill: particularly with the federal loans, it is like taking the middle man out the way we've done. >> you compare bill, what it used to be. when people are -- my wife is five years younger than i am. she's in her mid-50s. she graduate the from kent state. her dad carried a union card. that gave her enough to get started in college. she graduated with like $1500 in debt. that was 30 years ago and we have betrayed this generation by not giving them that opportunity. >> bill: i was stunned to read that the total student debt is greater than the total credit card debt in this country.

>> $3 trillion. >> bill: speaking about -- you mention about the banks and the role of the banks and everything and how sometimes we kind of move on from some issues. i remember when -- 2008, talking about what happened on wall street and oh, my god, we can never let this happen again because never again consider some of the banks too big to fail. and yet wall street is back. it looks like back to business as usual. there are still a lot of banks running around. you've raised this issue. still too big to fail. still out there doing the same kind of stuff right? >> yeah. they're so much bigger. 20 years ago the six largest banks, the six megabanks their combined assets were about 18% 19% of the gross domestic product. today, the sixth largest megabanks, their aggregate assets are over 60% of the gross

domestic product. it is not just their economic power in the marketplace. it is their political power. dodd-frank passed three years ago. the day it was signed by the president, the chief banking lobby said now it is halftime. meaning that now we're going to go and stop these regulations and water them down and they've been very successful, three years later they're still not nearly all the rules are set. they just got a break for another extension of either two or three years on some of the derivatives, regulation, it is just outrageous, the power that wall street continues to exert in obama administration and they exert in this congress. it is just reprehensible. it is morally wrong. >> bill: we still don't have a rule in place. >> what i'm working on, our legislation with republican sponsor, senator vitter, unusual combination of people, perhaps but those are too big to fail bill we're building slowly. we've got a lot of outside group support from conservatives in addition to progressives that

these banks have to -- >> bill: how would you fix it. >> it has to have higher capital requirements. the banks are definitely higher. they don't get the safety net insurance of fdic if they engage in risky activity. right now we encourage -- the government encourages the banks to engage in risky operations. >> bill: because we'll bail them out. >> as long as that happens there will be more bank failures and the system it will be less stable more fragile as a result. >> bill: i have to ask you senator, president obama got a little bit of flak when he was traveling in europe over the news of what nsa is up to in this country in this massive collection of data, about phone calls made in this country. do you support what the nsa is doing? >> i don't know enough yet. i do know that they should -- i don't like how much money the contractors are paid. i think that encourages bad behavior. i don't like that they give

security clearance to so many people especially outside contractors. i think you start with that. i've been to briefings. i'm not yet clear on is there function in all of these cases warranted. we clearly need to balance national security with privacy protections. but i think that it's not managed well, first of all. i think it is too far-flung in terms of their reach and in terms of the private contractors and when you pay the private contract -- it is like privatizing the prisons when you privatize the prisons you create a whole industry of people who want more prisons more longer term sentencing, all of those kinds of things. i think whenever you contract like that so broadly, it creates something that it shouldn't create in terms of government operations. >> bill: did you know about this program before edward snowden revealed it to the public? >> vaguely. but not like nsa likes to pretend we do.

there are briefings around here but there are briefings often only for people in the intelligence committee. and to get like -- as an example, on the trade agreements the president's negotiating, if you do all of the right things, you can get access as a member of the senate to -- you can get sort of brief access to some of the negotiations by going to the right room in the capitol and spending the time there. they make it very hard and there are a lot of those things to look at. i do that more with trade because the jobs that cost us. there are senators here who knew way more. leadership, members of the intelligence committee. but these guys aren't exactly forthcoming. >> bill: right. i know you have to go soon. senator durbin, you mentioned him, was on the show yesterday. he told us he knew about this seven years ago but he was frustrated because he was given a briefing on it but told you can't talk about it, right. he had some real questions and concerns.

and his point was that if you have -- if we have reasonable suspicion that anybody might in any way be involved, they can go full-bore listen to the phone calls and everything but without that, he thinks the nsa is going too far in collecting everybody's -- you know, information on what every single phone call made. i don't know if you've had that discussion with senator durbin or signed on to his legislation. >> actually, i had a dinner -- four of us had dinner talking about some of this. some of it is classified, some of it's not. but i think he's pretty reasonable. i think what he said made sense. >> bill: absolutely. senator, always good to have you with us. we'll have coffee ready for you when you come back in next time. >> thanks, bill. >> bill: senator sherrod brown. nobody better in terms of a liberal progressive, strong, get things done voice in the united states senate. people of ohio happy to have him. they proved that by re-electing him and we american people are happy to have him too.

as well as having -- congressman bobby scott from virginia. he'll join us next. >> go mobile with bill press. download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time anywhere. this is the "bill press show."

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that

current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. 14 minutes now before the top of the hour on a thursday morning. thursday, june 20. just talking about senator

sherrod -- just talking to sherrod brown about the nsa. sherrod brown joining the comments that made here on the program yesterday by senator dick durbin, the number two most powerful democrat in the senate that the nsa program as it is now being conducted goes too far. and their collection of data on phone calls made in this country should be limited to those on which they might have reasonable suspicion of some connection with terrorists rather than a blanket collection of everybody's phone calls. there are people -- members of the house of representatives too. who have expressed some concerns about this. members of the house judiciary committee including former chairman -- i guess -- former chairman john conyers, congressman jerry nadler from new york and congressman bobby scott from the third district of

virginia joins us on our news line this morning. congressman scott, good to talk to you. >> bill, good to talk to you. >> bill: haven't seen you in awhile. you and your colleagues are calling for hearings on this nsa. what's your brief with what nsa is doing. >> you've got two different questions. one is whether or not the collection of every phone call made in america is information related to an on-going foreign intelligence investigation. without any targeting just every phone call. the chairman -- the former chairman of the committee said when he wrote the bill, that's not what he meant. the other thing is after you get it, what can you do with it? because it will be a different standard. >> bill: yeah. >> we just had a dna case in the

supreme court that said if you've been charged with sexual assault and they take your dna and then find out it wasn't you they have your dna. they can then run the dna through the database to see if you're committed any crimes. they couldn't have gotten the dna to run it through to see if you've created a crime. but once they have it, apparently they can use it. now, once you collect all of the phone calls, if it's legal to get it the fbi has the -- the nsa, whoever gets it, has it. what can they do with it? can they go through and see if bill press has called an a.i.d.s. doctor or marriage counselor or bankruptcy attorney or drug rehab office? can they check to see who else you've been talking to like who your sources are? they've got the information. >> bill: sure. >> they run criminal investigations. with this data that they've got for another reason. the way the law is written it

almost invites criminal investigations and the problem is you're running criminal investigations, you don't need probable cause. obviously you don't need probable cause to get all of this data. one of the passports one person around the room has access to fisa court then all of a sudden, you can run the criminal investigation without the normal fourth amendment protections. >> bill: so this basically is thor -- nsa claims and the obama administration claims it was authorized under section 215 of the patriot act correct? >> right. >> bill: you think this is an abuse of section 215 and so does sensenbrenner, obviously? >> say again. >> bill: i know you're going to be holding hearings on this. do you plan on introducing any legislation to tailor down or to limit the application of 215 and limit what the nsa can collect? >> well, i think we first of all

need hearings to ascertain what's going on. because one of the problems we have is this foreign intelligence is not limited to terrorism. so you can get the probable cause you need to get this information as probable cause that the person you're targeting is an agent of a foreign government. you could be talking about any kind of foreign diplomacy. even just spying. so getting all this information for terrorism protection is one thing. but then once you've got it, can you tuesday for everyone else? >> bill: congressman, here's what i've heard. i've heard this from friends of mine who are working on this issue. and i've heard it from senators and members of congress. who defend what nsa is doing. you've heard it, i'm sure. it is like the talking point is. look, we're looking for a needle

in a haystack. but in order to find the needle, you need the haystack. that's how they justify collecting every -- information on every single phone call made in the united states. what's your answer to that argument? >> well, first of all you have two different conversations. if you're getting all of that information and having it sitting around and how do you like the idea that the fbi has all of your phone records so they know who you're talking to including your sources including any kind of embarrassing information. >> bill: right. >> including whether or not you've called a 900 number. pornographic phone number. they've got that information. that's part of the hay. what they use the hay for is usually left out of the conversation. they're only looking for terrorism. that's one conversation. if it they can use it for anything else, criminal

investigations, you know, when you talk about government access to this information, you're talking about of some your neighbors who may work for the nsa or the fbi or local police because one of the problems we had going into this was that the fbi wasn't talking to the department of defense, wasn't talking to the c.i.a. and you have the same kind of conversation with the boston bombings, everybody didn't know what everybody else knew. now, how many friends of yours work for the local police department? do they get to look at your phone records? if it is limited to terrori investigations, if you're having a differentonversio iyo ar otp,e ty' go any kind of curiosity how many people can kind of peep at it to see how many political operatives working for the local police department can look up to see who ken cuccinelli, the candidate for governor, let's check out his record.

don't tell anybody where you got it but if you've got a lead, maybe you can park somebody out front of the divorce lawyer's office. see why he's been calling. you don't have to know why he got the tip. >> bill: congressman scott hate to interrupt. we're out of time here at the end of the hour. thank you for joining us. also, i want to thank you for being a voice on this issue. there are too few voices. people are standing up and saying wait a minute. let's slow down. the nsa has gone way overboard. congressman bobby scott. congressman john conyers are way out front on this issue. i'll be back to tell what you the president is up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show". >> bill: we saved all of the excitement until the very end of the show here. our next hour, congressman joe courty from connecticut in studio with us and i tell you what the president is up to today. i've never seen a schedule like this. theory is. it is a blank sheet. came out yesterday. it just says the president has no public events scheduled. hey, what the hell. he flew in last night. got in at quarter to 1:00 last night. i think that p.o.t.u.s. is sleeping in. good for him. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: thursday, june 20. here we are on the "full court press" on current tv. everywhere in this great land of ours from our studio in capitol hill in washington d.c. thank you for joining us. good to see you this morning. we've got lots to talk about. lots you are going to want to climb in on. you know how to do it by phone at 1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama among the stories we're covering today. president obama is back from his trip to northern ireland and to germany. arrived at the white house at 12:45 this morning. he in germany of course in a big

speech at the brandenburg gates said we should look forward to a world without nuclear arms. be working toward the goal. it is first step, he invited russia to join the united states in reducing our nuclear arsenal by 1/3. in the meantime, president obama said we should get to work on the number one challenge facing us today and that is climate change. other stories here at home, director robert mueller of the fbi telling the senate judiciary committee yesterday that yes the fbi is using drones in this country but we are only doing so on a very limited basis so he says. valerie plame has spoken out for the first time about nsa and says edward snowden may not be a hero but he certainly is no traitor as dick cheney calls him. lisa murkowski from alaska endorses marriage equality. all of that and more on current tv. 1 thing than viewers like about

the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

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>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio an on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama says we should look forward to and work toward a world without nuclear arms. been a goal of this country. on the part of many presidents and it is great to see president obama endorse that and suggest yesterday that we ought to take the first step by reducing our nuclear arms by 1/3. just one of the big stories we're covering this morning. good to see you and welcome to the "full court press" here on a thursday morning. june 20. coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio here on capitol hill inviting your comments and your calls and you're going to want to join the conversation today because we've got two great guests here to kick off this hour.

first of all, here for the entire hour as a "friend of bill," our good friend democratic strategist jamal simmons. welcome back jamal. >> good morning. >> bill: nice to see you. i'm glad you're in uniform. we like people who come in with bold, plaid shirts. didn't do so well this morning. >> gotta enjoy the weather. >> bill: mark the season. >> that's right. >> bill: congressman joe courtney from connecticut back with us. fighting the good fight on the part of student loans. everything good in connecticut? >> yeah. we actually had a poll that time time -- that came out yesterday i was telling jamal rematch. 43-40 for the republican tom foley. so we're going to have an interesting -- i have complete confidence governor malloy is going to make it. but it's going to be tight.

>> bill: same guy who ran against him last time? he's always done a good job. >> tough issues, again he had a mess. as i was saying to jamal, the economy is picking up but frankly, it is not picking up as fast in other parts of the country. if you really look at the environment is really kind of -- making this close. but again he's got a very strong case to make about budget reform. school reform. obviously gun violence reform which you know, he's delivered. >> bill: his response to hurricane sandy, he was right on it. >> that's actually where he scores the highest marks. this guy has strong leadership skills. >> so important when it comes time for a chief executive. he seems like he's kind of working from the heart. he seems like one of these guys speaking from the heart and doing what he thinks and feels right thing to do. people respond to that in the end. >> bill: two talkers here. you can get a word in edgewise here on the phone at

1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. gentlemen, president obama in europe yesterday. and he got a little -- you know, little flak on the news about nsa here in this country. got a little flak of all places, in germany about this. david letterman had fun with that last night. here he is. >> i love this. germany is mad at the united states because of the nsa eavesdropping. let's go back and do that again. germany -- [ laughter ] is mad at the united states for the nsa eavesdropping. this, ladies and gentlemen from the country that gave us the gestapo. [ laughter ] they're angry at us! [ applause ] >> bill: collecting too much information, you know, you've really gone overboard. >> tough day in politics when the germans are criticizing your police tactics.

>> bill: pretty ironic. they're very sensitive of course, to collection of government data. >> so am i. >> bill: after what they did we all should be. particularly after what they've been through. >> i heard a little bit of your last segment. i think it is incredibly important we pay a lot of attention to this and get some real oversight, at least. the least we can do is have oversight. >> bill: let's start right there, congressman. i've expressed some concerns about this. so has interestingly enough, the author of the patriot act. james sensenbrenner who says well, when i wrote section 215 i didn't intend it to go this far. but i still find very relatively few voices or people who stand up and say do they really need to collect all of this data? what do you think? >> i don't. i didn't vote for fisa. i didn't vote for the patriot act extension or the cyber security. >> bill: the new russ feingold.

>> that's right. >> the fact is we do need to obviously have national security systems that have the tools to protect our country. but the way those laws were written which again immunized private technology companies who really almost become deputized arms of the government. such a clear flaw in the system and obviously the fisa court oversight accountability is really -- >> bill: it is a rubber stamp. >> that's obviously the other big flaw and weakness. you know, this, i think is going to bubble up in terms of forcing the congress to take a look at this again. and again i don't think anybody's talking about just surrendering or dropping our guard but there clearly is a better balance that we can strike here. >> i think right now, they thy they keep the records for five years. that seems like a long time to me. maybe one year maybe two years i'm not sure. should be an independent

inspector general or somebody who verifies the records are purged so we can trust a third party is watching the watchers. it seems to me like you ought to have in front of the fisa court a government lawyer to argue the opposite side of the case. maybe you're saying to the person who will be monitored they won't be notified they'll be monitored but it should be somebody else's responsibility to argue the other side of the case. >> that's a great point. they're ex-partheid hearings. it is not the true adversarial healthy process. >> neutral magistrate needs. >> bill: there is another issue, congressman bobby scott raised this in the last half hour. the argument that i -- in my debates about this with friends including one who works in the senate on this issue said you just don't understand. you don't understand. yes, we're look for the needle

in a haystack. in order to find the needle, you need the haystack. that's the third justification one of the talking points for amassing all of this information. congressman bobby scott raises the issue what do they do with the hay? once you've got that -- once they've got a record of every single phone call i've made, that could -- could notice could include calls i've made to porno phone lines or to girlfriends or you know, whatever. >> to your political consultant. >> bill: what do they do with it? >> the government knows you start making phone calls to donors and political consultants, the government will know before anyone else that you're thinking of running for office. they can then decide whether or not they want to use something else against you. in the hands of another j. edgar heifer or richard nixon what will they do with the information? i'm not worried about obama but eiffel -- i'm worried about

future presidents. >> bill: dick durbin was on the show yesterday. i think he has introduced legislation that would say that if you've got a reasonable suspicion, then you can get anything you want. but if you don't then -- you know. >> the argument is google knows this about you. washington government knows this about you. google can't prosecute me. google can't deny me a visa. google can't decide it wants the i.r.s. to investigate me. google doesn't have the kind of state power. it is very concerning. >> bill: one other issue congressman, then we'll move on. why was this such a big secret, i guess is the question. like they say okay, we all know and i think we accept this. we live in a different time. and we know we're going to have to sacrifice some things in order to keep us safe.

like surveillance cameras. i hate them but i see them and i know they're there. and i figure well, we need them. and they got the boston bomber, right? okay. if this was so important why didn't they tell us what they were doing? >> again i think that's sort of the -- almost embarrassing argument that some of the leaders of the nsa and you know, security agencies are making which is that somehow you know, that we didn't -- we couldn't be trusted or the world couldn't be trusted to know that these systems existed. again, nobody was asking for -- you know, individual case or an investigation. but the notion that this somehow harmed national security. we know that these systems are there, just really, it is almost embarrassing to listen to those arguments. >> bill: you know, google knew it. at&t knew it. verizon knew it. the obama white house knew it. the fisa court knew it. members of congress -- did you know about it? >> again another argument that

just really -- come on. the real committee of jurisdiction is a totally closed classified animal. and the notion that somehow the broader membership was being briefed and updated, it is just not true. flankly, once these -- frankly once these laws passed, it is not like i was stunned or fell off my chair when the stuff came out. the country created these mechanisms by passing these laws. but the scope and operation of it, the notion that there was somehow this up to date sort of flow of information just -- it is not the way it works. >> bill: great to have congressman joe courtney and jamal silmons both in studio with us this thursday morning. here we are june 20. interest on college loans is going to double in ten days and -- nothing's happening. >> first of all the american public, there was a poll that came out.

84%, shocker, thinks they shouldn't raise interest rates. >> bill: don't stick it to the students right? >> a trillion dollars in debt might do that to you. >> so, you're right. the law will trigger doubling of the rate for seven and a half million college students if congress doesn't act. organized in the house to block that which has 195 signatures as of last night. again, not a real shock. >> bill: how many do you need? >> 218. kind of getting tantalizingly close. >> bill: good for you. >> the house leadership is in denial about the fact that they think their bill, which they passed on may 23rd, which again, has a variable rate that will readjust and reset while you're in college cvo tells us we'll raise the rate --

>> bill: once had a mortgage like that. a lot of americans did and they lost their homes. >> yeah. subprime mortgage experience. >> bill: works so well. let's go back there. >> they projected that actually it is worse than if we did nothing and allowed the rates to double. that's the house g.o.p. bill. in the senate, there are discussions taking place. i was telling jamal off-line that harry reid and lamar alexander and some folks are actually talking and trying to see if -- and this is what happened last year by the way. again, the senate finally came together, pushed a bill through and the speaker had no choice. with the clock ticking to get it done. whether or not this thing actually does come together in the senate, it is not totally clear right now because they're trying to find a sweet spot on something more than the two-year extension. again, my feeling is that we should protect the lower rate. we need a higher ed re-authorization. >> bill: for thouing? a year two years? >> two years.

that gives us time to do a higher ed re-authorization act. the problem of higher ed affordability is not just the stafford student loan program. it is an important program but the fact is that we need to let people refinance their debt who are out of college. this doesn't -- you know, protecting lower rate doesn't help the guy who is 30 years old and carrying $80,000 in debt and is locked in because they can't consolidate and refinance. we need to give kids in high school much better information about making these life decisions. it is like buying a house now going to college. and so you know, part of the problem with these horror stories that are out there is people kind of walk backwards into these programs and you know, some of them in the for-profit sector which again has some pretty bad track records in terms of -- >> bill: we need to do something, too, about these colleges. with the tuition. >> the president had a good proposal to tie perkins grant eligibility, the campus-based

lending program to mod rating tuition increase. first time to have a real stack in the system. >> political expert. >> bill: that's what your business card says. >> but moms, dads and kids, not smart politics then. >> bill: let's offend women by passing another abortion bill. that's politically smart too. we can get back into that when we come back. joe courtney and jamal simmons when we come back. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 25 minutes after the hour now here on the full "full court press." this thursday morning. joe courtney from connecticut in studio with us. jamal simmons fighting the good fight. democratic strategist. good to you have back. >> always good to be here. >> bill: congressman jamal you're make the point about the political expert modestly there before the break. so you're the republican party and you are doing a little analysis of what went wrong in 2012 so we can do some course correction. and come out with a report that says boy we are losing. young people. we're losing minorities. we're losing women. we need to get back on some issues that they really care about. and then the house this week

passes the most restrictive limits on abortion in over a decade. the war on women goes on, right? what's going on? >> well, yeah, again, the todd aiken saga of the last election should have been the take away. >> bill: stop talking about rape. >> so we have this vote. we have this bill which again is totally antithetical to that. but also having the faces of the party get up there, the member from arizona and the one from texas saying this stuff i'm not sure todd aiken would have said. >> bill: you don't believe that fetuses masturbate? >> when you thought you heard it all, they surprise you. >> bill: he's a doctor! >> ob/gyn. so again hitting that raw wound with the gender gap and we're seeing the markey race. you look at the numbers.

soon to be senator markey is benefiting from the tone-deafness. >> bill: they have an amendment to this bill, jamal that says well, okay, we'll allow rape victims to get an abortion but only if they have reported that rape to the police. which, of course, only is in like 25% or 30% of cases. the rest don't for some very good reasons. so i mean -- >> my mother is an ob nurse, she delivered babies for 20 years. i remember we were talking about this. she could never understand why the democrats when they would talk about abortion, wouldn't talk about the choice women make and the mental anguish. she thought you would on a firmer ground if you acknowledge this is a gut-wrenching decision that women make this decision. they don't make it lightly. and now on the republican side, you have the exact opposite which is they come at this from the government sort of mandated, all of the privacy little government people, they want the

government mandate that gets in the room with the doctor and family and whatever religious beliefs she has and the government tells them what they can and cannot do. i don't think there's any -- any sensitivity to the reality of what most people who are going through this are really experiencing. >> bill: this is just continuation of the war on women. theythey cannot stop themselves. they can stop talking about these kind of issues. congressman, you have to get to work. you have a big day ahead of you. you have to fight the fight. thanks so much for coming in. always nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: we'll be back. jamal is here for another half hour. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. happy thursday morning everybody. great to see you today. good to have you with us on the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital brought to you today by afscme. you bet. you know, the good men and women of afscme. the largest public employee and healthcare worker's union in the entire country. under president lee saunders. for more information, check out their web site ats aftermy.org. that'sesthat's afscme.org. helping america make it happen, jamal simmons good friend of the program here. as a "friend of bill." jamal, let's start out. you and i are both big barack

obama supporters. >> yes sir. >> bill: no doubt about it. >> yes sir. >> bill: just want to make sure everybody understands it. lately, it has been a rocky road right? i mean some justified and some not. when you look at benghazi, i.r.s., department of justice now nsa. now war on syria. kind of a rocky road is. this just typical second term blues or is the white house -- or has the white house lost its footing? >> it is probably a little second-term blues. things that were bubbling up two years ago have made it to the surface. the world has a way of having its say on any presidency. you can't predict what's going to happen in another country. it always happens. but the place where the obama administration's got to do better is they've got to really sketch out a narrative for us about what the administration's about. what they're focused on. i think they're focused on some things that aren't as sexy,

getting the healthcare law implemented, doing nips and tucks on the economy. trying to deal with housing and trying to get mel watt to deal with housing. but we need kind of -- the president started to do this during the state of the union and he's got to give back to this sort of big vision about what he's doing. i think if there is any thread that runs in the administration, it is more opportunities for more americans. they really are trying to get more people bought into the growth. but i don't think most americans, if you ask them, so, what do you think the obama administration's big goal is -- >> bill: right now? >> i'm not sure most americans can answer that question. >> bill: that comes down to a communications strategy, correct? let me give you one -- for example, i don't think -- benghazi to me was never -- it is a tragedy. not something you can blame obama for. i'm not sure they handled that well. then the i.r.s. i don't think the i.r.s. is a big scandal either. but the white house i thought missed an opportunity.

it seems to me they could have nipped this in the bud early on by just saying well, they might not have done it very smoothly but certainly "the young you're not pretending they're social welfare groups. you really want us to believe that karl rove is not a political operation? you know? >> right. absolutely. >> bill: flip it around. >> absolutely. i will say that the real problem here is the president looks like he's being buffered about. he doesn't seem like -- manhandling this enough. what i would like to see is for the president and all of these guys to get a little bit more in front of this stuff and not just wait for the next thing to come after them but really sort of grab the bull by the horns and get ahead of it. there's no reason why in the i.r.s. scandal, they don't have put people -- i don't know if there are some personnel rules but deal with that later. put a bunch of people on administrative leave and let's figure it out. you did this. there is a problem. we'll sit you down for awhile. don't come back to work until we figure it out.

we'll figure it out. if you did okay, we'll bring you back. it shows the president in charge of the bureaucracy. right now, it just seems like -- >> bill: it does look like a boat on the wave bobbing around and being tossed around rather than setting a course and going straight ahead. the latest is syria. i want to ask you. it has been two years civil war there's not a murky issue in syria. really bad guy there. really evil dictator that ought to go. what's murky is what we could do about it. we haven't done anything for the last two years. the president signs up -- we're going to do something about nuclear weapons. he doesn't announce it. he lets his deputy security adviser, ben rose, lets him announce it. the president still has not explained to the american people and it has been over a week now why we are militarily involved in syria. that's a big deal. >> he's got to do that. i've been doing presidential politics for a long time.

the one thing i know is the strength of the leader is one of the most important points that you can have. you can't lose that. so when the president says if you cross this red line, there will be consequences. when they cross the red line, you've got to have consequences. once you decide to have consequences, you've got to get out in front of it and let people know you're the one who's doing it. here's what we expect from these actions. >> bill: when the president does that, he usually gets a good response. >> he usually rallies. i understand why we're wary. there are no good guys here. no thomas jefferson over in damascus we can go get behind. but i think they've got to figure out who they can work with which seems like they found a group that they can work with and how deeply we get in. nobody wants to get caught in another middle east quagmire. i certainly don't. >> bill: is one of the problems here that too many democrats are just sort of -- they're afraid to criticize the president on this issue? i mean because -- look if george bush had started -- i'm

not saying he started a third war but if george bush had gotten the military involved in a third country, democrats would have been raising holy hell, right? >> yeah, they would have. >> bill: if they don't when president obama does it, they're sort of giving him a pass and maybe he doesn't feel necessary to speak to the american people. if you follow my logic here if there is any. >> well, you know, you've got people like john mccain who are constantly egging on and there's no voice on the left that's offering alternative thesis to what's going on here other than john mccain. he becomes the defining voice of this debate. i think there's no reason for that to be the case. >> bill: there is every reason for that not to be the case. that's one of my pet peeves. he is not the head of the republican party. he is not the most recent republican candidate for president. he lost -- so why is he on every sunday morning talk show, right? and why does anybody listen to anything he says about anything?

>> the bookers like him. the people who book the shows like him. >> bill: politically some very important race i want to ask you about. let's start with virginia. okay. one of the two states that has the governor's race this year. ken cuccinelli, terry mcallive is our candidate. key state. we've got two democratic senators from virginia. democratic governor? what do you hear? >> i think mccallifer by the numbers should be able to win. he's gotta raise a pretty good campaign as a candidate. the last time he ran, his campaign wasn't that great. he's going to have to do better as a candidate. i particularly want to make sure in the african-american community he's got people who can really go in there and deal effectively. it will be a big number for him in getting people to turn out. my family is from -- my grandparents are from a little town outside charlottesville louisa county, four years ago

they were really really excited back in 2008 and 2012. they had no idea what was going on in the governor's race. they didn't have democrats going door-to-door in the small towns. so they've gotta amp that up to turn them out. >> bill: any idea they have that? >> i'm hearing signals they're pulling people together and accessing some of the good operatives from the obama campaign and getting them involved. i think that's gotta help. >> bill: they couldn't have a better -- >> cuccinelli, he's the worst. >> bill: couldn't have a better opponent. >> nobody who knows anything about this guy, who is at all progressive or even the moderate, really ought to have much positive to say about it. >> bill: then there's lieutenant-governor candidate. jackson. >> they thought cuccinelli wasn't right wing enough. he was even more right wing than he was. >> bill: before we get to that race, the other state that has the governor's race this year is of course, new jersey. with chris christie democratic

candidate, barbara. she's a ril good person. christie has played it smart. >> he's staying away from cpac. he's showing up with president obama when the president shows up places. >> bill: showing up with president clinton. >> showing up with president clinton out in chicago. so i think he's really trying to keep this moderate stance. i will tell you i'm not sure he can get through the republican primary. it all depends on who he's running -- in 2016, the presidential primaries. but if chris christie wins this governor's race and he can get into the republican primary with enough conservatives to divide up that conservative vote, he could be a very dangerous presidential candidate. i think he could be an extraordinarily dangerous presidential candidate. >> bill: absolutely. i'm just counting on republicans for being -- continuing to be so stupid that they'll nominate, you know -- >> rand paul.

>> bill: exactly. [ laughter ] and not take somebody who could appeal to and get a lot of democrats to cross the lines or independents to go. >> this gets to what we were talking about with the president. he's extraordinarily bright. he has really good plans. but sometimes he does not present to the level of strength and power and sort of manhandling of the system that one may want. and what i think is if presidential campaigns are reflective of the last president, people will be looking for somebody who will go to washington and not an nice guy. go to washington and bang heads total and make things happen. frankly, that's hillary clinton's strength. i think if hillary clinton is the nominee of the democratic side she's actually a good person to put up against chris christie because if there's one thing people know about hillary she's tough and she's not taking anything from anybody. if you get a hillary clinton/chris christie fight you have a pretty bang 'em up campaign going on. >> bill: from your lips to god's ears, that would be so great. we also have a senate race in

massachusetts. and lisa murkowski. >> we forgot. new jersey, cory booker running for the senate. special election. a couple of other democrats but it looks like he's in. >> bill: we'll add that to the list. cory booker. also, massachusetts and then lisa murkowski the third republican senator now to endorse marriage equality. republicans losing ground on that issue. jamal simmons is with us. join us at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour. jamal simmons is here with us as a "friend of bill" this hour covering the political waterfront with you, too. your comments on twitter welcome. we'll be back to the various political stories of the day. first, a quick note. here is another one of the articles on identity theft i tell you about. i keep looking for them because i was a victim of identity theft once. this one out of oklahoma where a man is serving now 78 months in prison for aggregated identity effort this. mail fraud and other charges. he got information on personal information on more than 100 people and used that information, their date of birth, social security, et cetera to fraudulently apply on line for prepaid debit cards. identity theft is everywhere.

you have to be protected against it. i recommend lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available. but of course, lifelock services can't protect you or your family if you're not a member. visit lifelock.com. here's how you do it. visit lifelock.com and enter press 10 or give them a call and mention press 10. you'll get 10% off your membership. number to call,er 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. jamal kay wants to join us from madison, wisconsin. what do you think? should we let her in? >> caller: hi. i want to get back to the abortion thing. a 20-week fetus has zero chance of survivallability outside of the womb which is why roe v. wade has the 24 to

26-week viability cutoff. and secondly, if i wanted the government in my vagina, i would screw one of them. >> hopefully it won't come to that. >> bill: thank you kay for that comment. you know, as i've talked about a couple of times this week, it is not to renew the debate about abortion and viability, it is the political strategy i don't get. >> that's right. >> bill: of the republicans who, of all of the issues they could have been dealing with this week, that's the one that they spent three days on, right? the most extreme measure in decades. so as opposed to getting away from the todd aikens of this world, or trent franks, the author of this bill who said incidence of pregnancy resulting from rape is very, very low. no, it's not. >> frankly if it's one or two like that's enough. >> bill: thank you. but these are the guys who are

driving the train. why republicans -- like boehner makes this -- lets them make this a top priority. it used to be you kept the cuckoos in the basement or the attic. >> the problem for their party is the cuckoos have taken over the wheel of the car. they've come out of the attic and they've gone into the garage and have taken the car. so what's going to happen to them is they have to figure out do they want to be a national party that people can rally around the core principles or are they going to be driven by the right wing wackos and stay with the congressional majority because they've redistricted the majority of americans out of being able to have their congressional choice. this argument they make that americans voted for republican congress gets under my skin. americans did not vote for republican in congress. the gerrymandering that took place gave us a republican congress. >> bill: exactly. remember they lost eight seats. >> absolutely. >> bill: senate race in% new jersey. >> senate race in failures. you've got a big race taking place. cory booker is kind of the mayor

of newark, is probably the leading democrat in that race. >> bill: two other members of congress? >> the republican -- we'll have a democrat who replaces senator lautenberg. >> bill: senate race in massachusetts? >> in massachusetts, markey is running. looks like he's going to be okay. i think -- i think democrats have to be careful only in this sense. people throughout are a little more angry than we in washington may perceive. it is seething beneath the surface. i think markey is fine. they're running his campaign the right way. but it might be a little closer than the popular -- >> bill: he's a great candidate but they can't take anything for granted. he's certainly much more in line with the people of massachusetts than gabriel gomez. >> absolutely. >> bill: finally lisa murkowski yesterday, you had robert portman and then mark kirk and now lisa murkowski the issue of same-sex marriage which

was the signature issue that republicans were using -- >> since 2004. running the campaigns around the country. >> bill: kind of disappeared as a wedge issue. >> it has. i think -- i can't remember which one of the guys on tv says this but -- george will, it is a problem that's dying out for the republican party as the party gets older, the people who are against same-sex marriage are literally going away. so it will be -- it won't even be an issue in five years. >> bill: it will be interesting to see if the republican party changes its platform because there again the crazies are in charge of the party. >> that's right. >> bill: but you see more and more sensible republicans. good for lisa murkowski for joining the sane people of this country. recognize that same-sex marriage -- >> the coalition of the rational. >> bill: should not be a big issue. jamal, what fun to have you in this morning. >> feel better. your voice is -- >> bill: every day it gets a little stronger. i'll be back with a quick parting shot.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

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>> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: in talking about edward snowden a lot of people have mentioned the name valley plame. it was interesting to see her speak out yesterday interviewed on "huff post" live, valerie said she didn't necessarily think edward snowden was a hero but he certainly was no traitor. as he was called by dick cheney. in a way valerie plame said, we as u.s. citizens owe edward snowden a thank you for having brought this issue to the forefront. she also noted how ironic it was

for dick cheney to complain about the leaking of intelligence by edward snowden. when cheney himself was responsible, of course, for leaking her identity as an undercover secret c.i.a. agent to columnist bob novack. that's what's so hypocritical. not only demanding snowden be charged as a traitor. these are the same people who defended dick cheney when he was guilty of a much more serious information leak. edward snowden or dick cheney. will the real traitor please stand up? tomorrow, first day of summer. we will be tasting the best wines for the summer. hey, how about that! and daniel stone from "national geographic" joins us as well. have a good one. see you back here again tomorrow.

[♪ theme music ♪] >> stephanie: all right. hello, current tv how number one. margaret cho on the big show today. jacki schechner guess who else? hot brie in the city. melissa fitzgerald. [ bell chimes ] [ applause ] >> stephanie: james was at her wedding. >> was he really? >> stephanie: she has some amazing stories. >> yeah, that was really a shocker. >> stephanie: yeah, i was really sad. wa